Recommended Age:
14
+
Best for independent readers who enjoy character-focused contemporary stories with immersive, reflective storytelling.
About the Book
Starting high school friendless and isolated after calling the police at a summer party, freshman Melinda slowly withdraws from speaking almost entirely, until her work in art class begins to give her a way to process the truth about why she called the police: she was raped at that party by an upperclassman who still walks the school halls. A quiet, deeply affecting story about trauma, survival, and the long road toward speaking one's truth.
Content Ratings
💡
Intense Themes
The entire book centers on a teenage girl's post-traumatic stress, mutism, and social withdrawal following a rape. Themes of silence, shame, isolation of a victim, and the failure of adults to recognize a student in crisis are sustained and emotionally intense throughout.
⚔️
Moderate Violence
A sexual assault of a fourteen-year-old occurs and is the emotional center of the book. A second attack occurs near the end. Both are psychologically impactful rather than graphically depicted.
Genre:
Adventure
Published:
1999
Page Count:
198
